Rapid crystallization of amorphous silicon utilizing a very-high-frequency microplasma jet for Si thin-film solar cells

The rapid crystallization of amorphous silicon utilizing a very-high-frequency thermal microplasma jet of argon is demonstrated. Highly crystallized microcrystalline Si films were fabricated on textured a-Si:H:B/SnO2/glass by adjusting the translational velocity of the substrate stage. The crystallization of amorphous silicon was promoted from the bottom surface with no significant inter diffusions of B and Sn from Si:H:B/SnO2 layers to intrinsic crystallized Si layer. The preliminary result of p–i–n Si thin-film solar cell is demonstrated using the microcrystalline Si films fabricated by the plasma annealing.